Life indices: Bengaluru, Dakshina Kannada, Udupi top

DECCAN CHRONICLE

Published Oct 20, 2015, 8:57 am IST

Updated Jan 10, 2016, 8:38 am IST

Abdul Nazir Sab institute used 11 parameters to assess human development index in panchayats for the first time

BENGALURU: All gram panchayats in Bengaluru (Urban), Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts top the human development index (HDI) in terms of standard of living, health and education according to HDI-2015 drawn up for the first time by the state government.

On Monday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah released the HDI drawn up by Abdul Nazir Sab Institute of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj and planning, programme monitoring and statistics department of Karnataka.

In order to assess HDI, eleven parameters were used. To assess the standard of living, factors such as cooking fuel, toilets, safe drinking water, electricity, pucca house, percentage of workers in non-agriculture sector and per capita income were considered. For health, parameters included the number of child deaths and maternal deaths and for education, literacy rate and enrollment to primary and secondary education in respective gram panchayats.

And, to assess the standard of living, the government collected data from department of backward classes welfare, and for health of villagers, data has been collected from zilla panchayats through Anganawadi centers and ASHA workers in villages. DDPI and BEO of respective taluks have provided information to assess the standard of education among villagers.

All 93 gram panchayats in Bengaluru (Urban), 206 gram panchayats in Dakshina Kannada and 148 gram panchayats in Udupi districts achieved cent percent human development index as far as in standard of living, health and education.

In Yadgir district, however, all gram panchayats are below the state average in terms of HDI. Bagalkot, In Bidar, Gadag, Kalburagi, Raichur and Vijayapura districts more than 90 per cent of gram panchyats figured in the list of gram panchayats below average in term of HDI. With the help of such details about standard of living, health and education across gram panchayats, the state government would be in a position to focus on problem areas and to introduce new innovative schemes for development of a particular sector. The HDI of these rural local bodies would also help the government focus on backward regions where the standard of living, health and education are below average when compared other districts, said Mr Siddaramaiah said after releasing the report.

Karnataka was the first state in releasing human development index in 1998-99 and 2005, he added.